KABUL, April 18: The son of the Netherlands’ new military chief was one of two Dutch Nato soldiers killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the roadside attack that killed Lieutenant Dennis van Uhm, the son of General Peter van Uhm, and said the attack was in retaliation to an anti-Islam film by a Dutch MP.

Gen van Uhm was named top commander of the Dutch armed forces only on Thursday.

Four Dutch soldiers were returning from a reconnaissance mission when the blast hit their vehicle in the troubled southern province of Uruzgan, Dutch defence ministry spokesman General Freek Meulman said.

The two soldiers killed were 23 and 22 years old, said Meulman. Two other soldiers aged 20 and 25 were wounded.

“We knew that the son of Dutch chief of staff was in the vehicle,” Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP, changing his account from an earlier statement that the militant group did not know who was in the car.

The hardline militia had threatened to step up attacks against Dutch forces in Afghanistan if far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders broadcast his anti-Islam film, which was aired last month.

“This (attack) was part of our operation against the Dutch. First it was because they have occupied our country and secondly it was in retaliation to the Dutch insult to our great Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him),” Ahmadi said.

Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Hemat said the incident occurred near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital. “It was a roadside bomb blast which hit the Dutch soldiers. Two soldiers were killed,” he said.

More than 1,600 Dutch soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force which is fighting the Taliban resistance.

The Dutch government decided in November to extend the mission until late 2010.

Sixteen Dutch soldiers have been killed in the country, either in accidents or combat.

Three Afghan civilians died in another roadside bomb blast near Kabul on Friday, police said.

The three were killed and another wounded when their vehicle hit a bomb laid on a road frequently used by Afghan and international forces in Logar province, provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa said.

He blamed the attack on Taliban-linked militants.—AFP